Although we have not heard about its since The Game Awards in December, EA's first-person magic shooter, Immortals of Aveum, could launch on July 20th. Developed by Ascendant Studios, and to be published under EA Originals, Immortals of Aveum is built with Unreal Engine 5, and will b e coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and the PC.

The earlier trailer showcased a rather interesting single-player, first-person magic shooter experience in "an original fantasy universe engulfed in magic, rife with conflict, and on the verge of oblivion." The Ascendant is a new independent studio founded by Bret Robbins, who was behind Visceral Games' Dead Space and Sledgehammer's Call of Duty, including Modern Warfare 3, Advanced Warfare and World War 2. The studio managed to pick up some rather talented people that worked on some big AAA games.

Update: Ascendant Studios also added a countdown to the reveal trailer that will launch in two days, on April 13th.

Dear players - thank you for the tremendous support we received so far on Atlas Fallen! From your enthusiastic comments on our video teasers online and in person at PAX EAST to the positive previews from critics, we're grateful and honored to have you excited to play our game. Our goal has always been to create a memorable RPG experience in a unique setting, with exciting gameplay and the option for fully playable seamless co-op with a friend.

We'd love to give the game some extra time which will allow us to deliver the best possible version of Atlas Fallen. To achieve this, we have made the difficult decision to delay the worldwide launch of Atlas Fallen to AUGUST 10, 2023.

Hexworks and CI Games have shown off their upcoming RPG, Lords of the Fallen, as part of the State of Unreal GDC Showcase. The trailer demonstrates the team's ambitions and the use of Unreal Engine 5 has allowed them "to create the most immersive game experience possible". The game's character customization system is a cumulation of UE5 generated geometry and 3D scans taken from real life human models. The development team states that this allows players to "create unique faces and bodies by dynamically morphing between a huge range of shapes before finessing the finer details."

Unreal Engine 5's Lumen Global Illumination has been put to good use by the team - the game's complex and rich environments are lit in dramatic and atmospheric fashion, all in real time, with an added layer of technical accomplishment due to the player being able to swap between two parallel worlds. Hexworks devised its own custom toolset to enable the seamless shift from Axiom, the realm of the living, to Umbral, the realm of the dead: "This means our artists and designers can ensure these worlds feel intrinsically linked, like two sides of the same coin... even if one side is decidedly more horrific than the other."

NCSOFT, a global premier game developer and publisher, unveiled its digital human technology together with Project M's trailer at the Game Developers Conference 2023 (GDC), currently being held in San Francisco, CA.

On March 22, NCSOFT revealed the video at State of Unreal, Epic Games' opening session at GDC held to introduce new Unreal Engine tools and technologies in collaboration with its partners. Here, Songyee Yoon, chief strategy officer (CSO) at NCSOFT, was on stage to introduce the company's latest project, Project M, and its trailer.

Arkane Studios will be working on the removal of the single-player always online restriction from its upcoming Redfall first-person shooter game. This follows significant backlash expressed by gamers, after the presence of this function was brought to light in February 2023. In an interview conducted by Eurogamer, game director Harvey Smith has revealed that the Austin, Texas-based branch has taken the negative feedback seriously. The development team is active in making changes to Redfall's underpinnings, so that an offline single-player experience becomes a possibility.

Smith acknowledged that modern games are intrinsically linked to online services, but these should offer functionality when offline circumstances occur. He imagined situations from the perspective of being a potential Redfall player: "They could say: 'Oh, my God, you're always online. If you get on your Steam, and it's not online, you freak out. If you get on your Xbox, and you can't get the latest patch, or see what your friends are doing, you freak out. You want to be always online!' But that response, I think, lacks empathy."

CD Projekt has admitted to writing off the development funds spent so far expended on Project Sirius - a codename for a satellite studio produced spin-off game in its best selling The Witcher series. The Polish development and publishing group is restarting Project Sirius from scratch, and it is not clear whether their East Coast USA-based outfit, Molasses Flood, will remain as part of the rebooted cycle. Within a recently released company financial report its reasoning was made clear: "The aforementioned decision is based on results of evaluation of the scope and commercial potential of the original concept of Project Sirius, and ongoing work on formulating a new framework for this project."

CD Projekt had spent over $7 million in 2022 on development costs for Project Sirius. More than $2.2 million has been spent in 2023, presumably right up until the decision to bin all currently completed work. Project Sirius was announced in the autumn of 2022, and at around that time Molasses Flood was undertaking a large scale recruitment drive. The game was in a pre-production phase by the end of the year, with over sixty members of staff confirmed to be working on it. Development was also being supported by members of CD Projekt RED's team at their Warsaw headquarters, and now it is very apparent that the overseers were not happy with what was going on in New England.

As promised and detailed earlier, NVIDIA has now released the first SDK for Path Tracing. Path Tracing, which should accurately re-create physics of all light sources in a scene, has been around and we already had a chance to see it in some demos like Quake RTX and Portal RTX, but now, thanks to some previously available NVIDIA tools and features, it could be finally coming to more games and not just tech demos.

According to NVIDIA, the thing that makes Path Tracing possible now, and more accessible to developers, is the combination of previously available NVIDIA technologies, as well as some new ones, including the new performance multiplier in DLSS 3, called the DLSS Frame Generation. The DLSS Frame Generation, working on GeForce 40 series cards and using the Optical Flow Accelerator, is what made real-time path tracing possible. The RTX Path Tracing SDK, according to NVIDIA, should re-create the physics of all light sources in a scene in order to reproduce what the eye sees in real life, and allows to build a reference path traces to ensure that lighting during production is true to life, while accelerating the iteration process; or build high-quality photo modes for RT-capable GPUs or real-time, ultra-quality modes that take advantage of the Ada Lovelace architecture.

French developer 2:21 this week announced its intentions to produce remastered versions of its Twinsen's Little Big Adventure games. A planned third game has been delayed beyond 2024, the original intention was to release this sequel in time for the 30th Anniversary of the series, but development has only reached a prototype phase. The remasters will serve as an interim proof of potential to prospective publishers of the third game. These updated versions have been assembled by a small team, with the Unreal Engine 5 serving as the technological base.

The original Little Big Adventure was released and published by Electronic Arts in 1994, and the second in 1997. Activision dealt with the latter's distribution in North America. Certain territories received retitled versions - Relentless: Twinsen's Adventure (1) and Twinsen's Odyssey (2) - this inconsistent branding by market departments caused much confusion during the nascent days of gaming discussion online. The 2:21 team has sought to hybridize the different titles, but the 'Relentless' moniker is no longer part of its new naming system, thankfully.

Atlas Fallen, the epic fantasy action-RPG from Focus Entertainment's studio Deck13 Interactive, is excited to open pre-orders following the recent announcement of its May 16 release date. Get a feel of the high sensations to come in the game where you battle legendary creatures in super-powered combat with today's captivating Gameplay Reveal Trailer.

Take on a heroic journey through a variety of breath-taking environments, swiftly gliding through the desert landscapes of a vast sand-covered world. Explore ancient ruins and unearth the mysteries and secrets of a fallen society. Fight a corrupt god and extraordinary beasts thanks to the divine power of your shape-shifting weapon. Unlock powerful skills and abilities to build a unique move-set and rise as the champion who will liberate the people of Atlas.

Get an exclusive first-look at the gameplay of Layers of Fear, the series' crowning work, in this 11-minute walkthrough. Follow the Painter from the original Layers of Fear, and join the Writer - a recently unveiled character - for a closer look at the latest installment in the Layers franchise.

As The Writer, enter the lone and ghastly Lighthouse - a newly-introduced location - and uncover an untold story that links all of the Layers' characters and events together. Unravel secrets, solve puzzles, and face the threats of the old Mansion that can only be solved with a lantern - a new and essential tool to confront the nightmares in the game!

NVIDIA DLSS has revolutionized graphics rendering, using AI to boost frame rates while delivering crisp, high quality images. GeForce RTX gamers can accelerate performance with DLSS in over 270 games and apps, with another 7 games adding support in March, and today, we are announcing that Diablo IV and Redfall will both launch with DLSS 3.

DLSS 3's Frame Generation multiplies performance in 28 released games and has been adopted 7X faster than DLSS 2 in the first 6 months. DLSS' groundbreaking features, exceptional performance, and ease of integration are key to its rapid adoption by developers. With the DLSS 3 Frame Generation plugin becoming publicly available at GDC for developers, and a DLSS 3 plugin coming soon for Unreal Engine 5.2, it will be even easier for developers to enhance the next generation of games. Keep reading for further details about the addition of NVIDIA DLSS to Deceive Inc., Diablo IV, Forza Horizon 5, Gripper, Redfall, Smalland: Survive the Wilds, and THE FINALS Closed Beta.

GSC Game World has released a defiant statement, in the face of threats of ransomed S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 data. It provides an update about one of its employee's accounts being compromised by hackers, and as a result of this, the studio is now threatened with blackmail. A statement was posted, March 12, on the GSC Game World's official Twitter account. The developer is urging that fans refrain from sharing leaked material and spoilers, and warns that the final product should not be pre-judged in a harsh light, based on any of the leaked work-in-progress material.

It is not unusual for hacker groups to threaten game developers and publishers. Rockstar Games was the victim of a leak in 2022, when videos of its in-development and upcoming video game Grand Theft Auto 6 were uploaded to forums. The in-game footage was spread across social media and the internet, and shortly thereafter, a hacker wanted to "negotiate a deal" with Rockstar Games. Source code for GTA 5 & 6 was used as leverage.

According to the description of NVIDIA's session for GDC 2023, we will finally get to see S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl.

NVIDIA will be holding a session at GDC 2023 on March 23rd together with GSC Game World's 3D Animator, Anton Riabchuk, where it will give an exclusive look at S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl.

While GSC Game World released a few screenshots as well as an official trailer for the game, GDC 2023 could be the perfect place to show an in-engine gameplay. The description of the GDC session also reveals that GSC Game World is working closely with NVIDIA and the session will also include an introduction to Omniverse Audio2Face AI SDK.

Intel released the XeSS Unreal Engine plugin, letting game developers integrate the performance enhancement technology with their Unreal Engine 4 and Unreal Engine 5 powered games, simulators, and 3D visualization applications. The plugin lets Unreal Engine take advantage of XeSS not just on Intel Arc "Alchemist" GPUs, where they benefit from the accelerated XMX code-path; but also AMD and NVIDIA GPUs, where the technology takes advantage of the slower yet functional DP4a code-path. XeSS is technically a second-generation super-resolution technology that Intel claims is on-par with AMD FSR 2.x and NVIDIA DLSS 2. Integrating it is as straightforward as adding AMD FSR support. Those interested can grab the plugin from the GitHub source link, below.

Epic Games is excited to announce that Unreal Engine 5.1 is now available. With this release, we've built upon the groundbreaking feature set introduced in UE5, making it more robust, efficient, and versatile for creators across all industries. As part of this effort, we've been stress-testing the engine against different workflows, making it applicable to more sectors. We've laid the groundwork for the Lumen dynamic global illumination and reflections system, the Nanite virtualized micropolygon geometry system, and Virtual Shadow Maps (VSM) to support games and experiences running at 60 FPS on next-gen consoles and capable PCs, enabling fast-paced competitive games and detailed simulations to run without latency.

Meanwhile, Nanite has also been updated with a Programmable Rasterizer to allow for material-driven animations and deformations via World Position Offset, as well as opacity masks. This exciting development paves the way for artists to use Nanite to program specific objects' behavior, for example Nanite-based foliage with leaves blowing in the wind. This release adds a number of features to improve efficiency for developers of games and other large-scale interactive projects, helping teams be more productive.

NVIDIA today released the latest version of its GeForce Game Ready drivers. Version 516.59 WHQL comes with optimization for F1 2022. The drivers also introduce support for Windows 11 22H2, and the "new" GeForce GTX 1630, besides CUDA 11.7. The drivers also fix a handful of issues, including artifacts noticed in Red Dead Redemption 2 (Vulkan), Minecraft Java Edition, and Second Life, when connecting using third-party viewers. Incorrect light-source rendering in Neverwinter Nights; and black textures in Path of Exile. A stuttering was noticed in games when you invoke the Xbox overlay, which has been fixed. Lastly, a bunch of stability issues with Unreal Engine 5 has been fixed.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 516.59 WHQL

Today marks a year since gamers could try out AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution technology for themselves with our spatial upscaler - FSR 1. With the introduction of FSR 2, our temporal upscaling solution earlier this year, there are now over 110 games that support FSR. The rate of uptake has been very impressive - FSR is AMD's fastest adopted software gaming technology to date.

So it seems fitting that we should pick this anniversary day to share the source code for FSR 2, opening up the opportunity for every game developer to integrate FSR 2 if they wish, and add their title to the 24 games which have already announced support. As always, the source code is being made available via GPUOpen under the MIT license, and you can now find links to it on our dedicated FSR 2 page.

Millions of viewers around the world today watched the world premiere cinematic trailer for Frost Giant Studios' eagerly-anticipated real-time strategy game, Stormgate. Southern California-based Frost Giant Studios was founded in 2020 by Tim Morten and Tim Campbell, veteran game development leaders who helped create some of the most acclaimed and best-selling PC games of all time-as well as some of the most-watched esports-including Blizzard Entertainment's WarCraft III and StarCraft II.

"We are building Stormgate for the real-time strategy community--past, present, and future," said Tim Morten, CEO and production director at Frost Giant Studios. "Our vision is to create a social experience that breaks down the barriers that have kept people away, to welcome back players who have been waiting for the next great RTS, and to prove that the RTS genre can thrive once again."

Star Atlas, a next-gen metaverse with triple-A game design and Unreal Engine 5 graphics built on the Solana blockchain, today announced its partnership with iBUYPOWER, a leading manufacturer of custom gaming PCs, and now the official computer hardware provider of Star Atlas. This is the first step in a long-term relationship to onboard new gamers to the metaverse.

"We're really excited to join forces with iBUYPOWER to accelerate the adoption of web3 gaming," said Michael Wager, Co-Founder and CEO of ATMTA, Inc., the principal development studio of Star Atlas. "There is a lot of skepticism around web3 gaming, and we're happy to partner with the leading gaming hardware maker because we understand the needs of traditional gamers. iBUYPOWER builds great products, and we're glad they share our vision and want to help get their gaming community in the Star Atlas metaverse so they can see just how great of a gaming experience it's going to be."

Epic Games is excited to announce that The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Experience is now available to download for free on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. This boundary-pushing technical demo is an original concept set within the world of Warner Bros' The Matrix. Written and cinematically directed by Lana Wachowski, it features Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss reprising their roles as Neo and Trinity and—in a reality-flipping twist—also playing themselves.

The project reunited many of the crew that worked on the seminal The Matrix trilogy, including James McTeigue, Kym Barrett, John Gaeta, Kim Libreri, Jerome Platteaux, George Borshukov, and Michael F Gay, in collaboration with teams across both Epic Games and partners, such as SideFX, Evil Eye Pictures, The Coalition, WetaFX (formerly Weta Digital), and many others.

The wait is over—we're very excited to announce that Unreal Engine 5 is now available to download! With this release, we aim to empower both large and small teams to really push the boundaries of what's possible, visually and interactively. UE5 will enable you to realize next-generation real-time 3D content and experiences with greater freedom, fidelity, and flexibility than ever before. As you may have seen, the new features and workflows have already been production-proven for game development in Fortnite and The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Experience demo.

Meanwhile, although some major new features like Lumen and Nanite have not yet been validated for non-games workflows (this is an ongoing goal for future releases), all creators will be able to continue using workflows supported in UE 4.27. But they'll also benefit from a redesigned Unreal Editor, better performance, artist-friendly animation tools, an extended mesh creation and editing toolset, improved path tracing, and much more. See the documentation for full details.

Enriching its game developer ecosystem, NVIDIA today announced the launch of new NVIDIA Omniverse features that make it easier for developers to share assets, sort asset libraries, collaborate and deploy AI to animate characters' facial expressions in a new game development pipeline. With the NVIDIA Omniverse real-time design collaboration and simulation platform, game developers can use AI- and NVIDIA RTX -enabled tools, or easily build custom ones, to streamline, accelerate and enhance their development workflows. New features for game developers include updates to Omniverse Audio2Face, Omniverse Nucleus Cloud and Omniverse DeepSearch, as well as the introduction of Unreal Engine 5 Omniverse Connector.

"Omniverse provides a powerful development pipeline that addresses the challenges of doing business in today's world," said Frank DeLise, vice president of Omniverse at NVIDIA. "Its ability to unify artists, art, tools and applications under a single platform can inspire collaboration among even the most dispersed game development organization."

CD PROJEKT RED today revealed that the next installment in The Witcher series of video games is currently in development with Unreal Engine 5, kicking off a new saga for the franchise and a new technology partnership with Epic Games.

Today's announcement marks the first official confirmation of a new game in The Witcher series since the release of CD PROJEKT RED's previous single-player, AAA RPG in the franchise—The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt—which won a total of 250 Game of the Year awards and was later expanded upon with the Hearts of Stone and Blood & Wine add-ons.

NVIDIA's Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) technology has been developed to upscale lower resolutions using artificial intelligence and deep learning algorithms. By using this technique, users with RTX cards can increase their framerates in supported games, with minimal loss in image quality. Recently, AMD introduced FidelityFX Super Resolution, a competing technology, which in one aspect might be technologically better than the DLSS competition. How you might wonder? Well, at the "quality" setting, NVIDIA's DLSS renders the game at 66.6% of the resolution, upscaling it 1.5 times. At the same "quality" preset, AMD FSR renders the game at 77% of the resolution and upscales the image by 1.3 times. This is technically providing an advantage to AMD FSR technology, as the image is posed to look better with less upscaling. DLSS on the other hand uses much more information, because it considers multiple frames in its temporal algorithm.

That newfound competition could be what made NVIDIA re-think their options and today we are getting some exciting news regarding DLSS. In the Unreal Engine 5 (UE5) documentation, there is a placeholder for "Ultra Quality" DLSS mode, which is supposed to rival AMD's "Ultra Quality" mode and offer the best possible image quality. Currently, the latest DLSS version is 2.2.6.0, which is present in some DLSS supported games, and can be added to others using a DLL-swap. The updated version with the Ultra Quality preset is already present in UE5, called DLSS 2.2.9.0. Mr. Alexander Battaglia from Digital Foundry has made a quick comparison using the two versions, however, we are waiting for more in-depth testing to see the final results.

NVIDIA is reportedly about to make some big announcements related to its DLSS 2.0 performance enhancement feature. Excepts from the announcement we leaked to the web by VideoCardz. To begin with, the company is about to announce that both the upcoming Unreal Engine 5, and the current UE 4, support DLSS 2.0, besides the latest version 2021.2 of the Unity Engine. A large number of first-party game engines now support DLSS 2.0, including notably, the Rockstar Games RAGE engine powering RDR2, CryEngine, Decima, AnvilNext, REDEngine, and more.

NVIDIA is also preparing to announce that a vast new selection of games support DLSS 2.0, including Red Dead Redemption 2 (support coming soon), Rainbow Six Siege, DOOM Eternal (patch scheduled for June 29), Rust, and more. Lastly, NVIDIA is about to announce that it is working with Valve to bring DLSS support to Linux, via Proton compatibility layer. This will enable playing AAA Windows games on Linux with DLSS enabled.